It is a well-known principle that water evaporation is particularly effective as a coolant when the ambient air has low humidity. It is also well-known that comfort levels are enhanced in extremely dry environments by elevating the relative humidity to moderately dry. An apparatus which utilizes this evaporative cooling principle in an easy-to-use, portable and efficient manner is needed.
Sufficient automatic portable misting devices for delivering humidity into a dry atmosphere to lower the ambient atmospheric temperature in a localized area or to lower the surface temperature of a person's skin are not available. A variety of devices for directing and applying a spray or mist of fluid to an object, such as crops, lawns, weeds or fire are known. Misting devices such as those associated with greenhouse agriculture have long been used for air conditioning of outdoor environments. In fact, some of these devices have been adapted and have become popular for use by sunbathers, athletes, and others participating in outdoor activities in hot, arid climates. However, the misting devices of the prior art exhibit various disadvantages. Many prior art devices are ineffective in that they do not provide a desired uniformity and coverage of the misting, or are difficult to use because the misting nozzles are difficult to support in desired locations. Likewise, many of the prior art devices are unsuitable for use in many remote outdoor locations because they require a pressurized water source and are awkward to relocate and to store when not in use. In addition, many of the prior art devices utilize expensive, high-maintenance pumps that require a non-portable source of electric power.
Thus, there is a need for a misting apparatus for outdoor environments that is portable, easy to use and to store, unobtrusive, and effective for uniformly misting a localized area. Accordingly, it is desirable that the misting apparatus be portable for ready transportation to a variety of outdoor locations, such as a yard, a beach, a boat, a campground or the like, and be adaptable for use by one or more persons. It is also desirable that the quantity of water dispensed be controllable to maintain comfort during outdoor activities and that the apparatus be economical to purchase and to operate.
An examination of the spraying apparatus art clearly discloses that containers for the fluid are pressurized by either motor powered pumps, air pressure directly applied to the fluid chamber, or manual pumping. Examples of motor powered sprayers are represented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,421,697 Nov. 10, 1970, U.S. Pat. No. 4,651,903 issued to Pagliai on Mar. 24, 1987. Examples of air pressurized and manually powered sprayers are represented in U.S. Pat. No. 2,911,157 issued to De Coste on Nov. 14, 1967, U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,245 issued to Smith on Nov. 23, 1976, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,688,643 issued to Carter et al. on Apr. 25, 1987. The motor powered sprayers are often heavy, noisy, cumbersome to use, expensive to maintain and require either fuel or an electrical cord connecting the sprayer to an electrical source, both of which may not be readily available in an outdoor environment. The air pressurized sprayers of the prior art typically require that the user has constant access to a source of pressurized air to recharge the container, while the manually pumped containers often provide limited pressurization and require manual effort to pressurize.
Therefore, a need exists for a portable mist cooling apparatus for evaporatively or conductively cooling a localized area which employs a refillable, pressurizable tank, an automatic pressurizing means, such as a portable air compressor, a fluid conduit having a plurality of longitudinally-spaced openings therein for distributing a fine spray or mist, and a valve for activating a flow of pressurized fluid from the tank through the fluid conduit.